Hornberger's Blog

Conservative Follies on Obamacare

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 12, 2017

Let’s remind ourselves of the central feature of Obamacare: coercion. Under former President Obama’s program, the federal government orders Americans to purchase healthcare insurance. If they fail or refuse to do so, government officials punish them. How can such a mandate possibly be reconciled with the principles of a genuinely free society? It can’t be. In a free society, people decide ...

None Dare Call It Socialism

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 11, 2017

In 1888 British Liberal leader Sir William Harcourt declared, “We are all socialists now.” With the notable exception of libertarians, the same can be said of the American people in 2017. Except for libertarians, Americans are all socialists now, especially Americans who call themselves liberals, progressives, or conservatives. Some liberals are very open and honest about being socialists. U.S. Senator Bernie ...

Communists to U.S.: “Just Leave Us Alone”

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 10, 2017

In 1964, ABC television newscaster Lisa Howard asked Che Guevara, the self-avowed communist ally of Fidel Castro during and after the Cuban Revolution, a fascinating question: “What would you like to see the United States do, as regards Cuba?” Undoubtedly, U.S. officials who were watching the broadcast were hoping that Guevara would respond in the customary way: “We would like ...

The Conquest of the United States by Cuba

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 7, 2017

One of the ironies of the U.S. national-security state’s never-ending efforts to effect regime change in Cuba is that the United States ended up adopting and embracing many of the dark-side policies and practices of what one might expect a communist regime to engage in. After the conversion of the U.S. government to a national-security state after World War ...

FDR Destroyed the Truth about Gold

by Future of Freedom Foundation July 6, 2017

On April 5, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt issued a decree that made it illegal for Americans to own gold. Any American caught owning gold after that date would be hit with a federal felony prosecution and face a penalty of up to five to ten years in jail and a $10,000 fine. Roosevelt’s decree, which was memorialized as Executive ...

Don’t Be Surprised to See Trump Bomb North Korea

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 5, 2017

After the in-your-face Fourth of July “gift” that North Korea delivered to President Trump in the form of an intercontinental ballistic missile test, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see President Trump and the Pentagon retaliate by bombing North Korea. The reason goes not only to Trump’s erratic behavior, especially when teased or taunted, but also ...

Murder with Impunity in Russia … and the U.S.

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 3, 2017

Last Friday, the Washington Post published an excellent editorial about murder and the rule of law. The editorial described how Russian prosecutors secured convictions of five men for murdering Boris Nemtsov, a popular critic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, but criticized Russian officials for failing to pursue the people who ordered the killings. The editorial, ...

The Irrationality of American Socialists

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 30, 2017

It is absolutely amazing to me how any American can still be wedded to socialism. Everywhere you look, socialism has produced misery, suffering, poverty, chaos, crisis, conflict, tyranny, and violence. Yet, there they are: Americans socialists going gaga over self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders, wishing that he had been elected president, and exclaiming that he would have saved America with his ...

Military Spouses: Lead Us Out of the Quagmire!

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 29, 2017

For the life of me, I just can’t figure out why the American people do not rise up en masse against the forever wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan in which the United States has been embroiled for more than 15 years. After all, by now everyone must surely realize, despite the superficial rhetoric to the contrary, that U.S. ...

Supreme Court Upholds the Right of Churches to Steal

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 28, 2017

On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court held that churches have the right to steal from people to get the money to fund their activities. No, the Court didn’t use the word “stealing” but that is the import of its ruling in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer, a case in which the Court held that states cannot discriminate against churches ...

Empire-Speak

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 27, 2017

One of the most fascinating aspects of living under imperialism is the lexicon that this philosophy brings into existence. It’s called Empire-Speak. Given the complexity of this specialized language, it usually takes people years of education and training to master it. One of the finest examples of Empire-Speak appeared last week in a Washington Post op-ed by Post columnist Charles ...

Donald Trump: Cold War Anachronism

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 26, 2017

Perhaps President Trump thinks that by further destroying the freedom of the American people to travel and spend money in Cuba, he can ingratiate himself with the national-security establishment in the hopes they will lay off him with their Russia meddling investigation. Regardless, Trump’s actions are not only a classic throwback to the old Cold War, when the Pentagon ...